Sweet Surprise: Romance Collection

by Wanda E. Brunstetter, Kristin Billerbeck, Kristy Dykes, Aisha Ford, Birdie L. Etchison, Pamela Griffin, Joyce Livingston, Tamela Hancock Murray

  Lynette tried not to be impressed with his sensitivity. “I know, but I always find it so hard to say no when people ask me things. I suppose I have to learn.”

  He nodded. “It’s hard, but I’ve found it’s okay to say no. People do understand.”

  Lynette wasn’t so sure. She had been involved in so many things for so long that people expected these things of her. But Rick wasn’t there to discuss people’s expectations. He was there to start work on the fund-raiser.

  Lynette directed him into the living room. When he sat on one end of the couch, she sat at the other end.

  “So, Rick, what do you have in mind? Have you selected a day? How many of the youth will be involved?”

  “Uh—so far I have no idea what we’re going to do, I don’t know what day is best, and I haven’t talked to the youth group because our meetings are Wednesday and today is only Monday.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  He grinned. Little crinkles appeared in the corners of his bright green eyes. All of a sudden the supper she thought was so delicious didn’t sit too well in the bottom of her stomach.

  “Nope. I was just as unprepared for this as you.”

  Lynette shook her head to bring her concentration back to the problem at hand. “What are we going to do?”

  His smile disappeared. “I have a number of ideas. We only have to get a proposal to the church board by Wednesday—not the whole complete plan—but we have to be realistic about this. We can’t waste time, because the next time the rains come we’ll be in serious trouble. I’ll phone the older members of the youth group about whatever we come up with today; then we’ll discuss it again. By Wednesday we should have a good idea about what we’re capable of producing.”

  “I think I should warn you that Dad has already found a supplier for the shingles and made a tentative order, pending financing. He’s getting a good price through Jeff, who’s going to be heading up the actual work.”

  Rick cringed. “Great—no pressure.” He let his sarcasm hang for a few seconds then cleared his throat. “He’s right to do it now, but we have to be prepared. I was thinking we should pick the Saturday before Labor Day weekend. That way people will be antsy to go out and do something, but not be out of town or otherwise have made plans.”

  “That’s a good idea. What do you have in mind?”

  “I don’t know. When I got home after church yesterday, I wrote down what I could remember.” He twisted, not rising from the couch, extended one leg, and pulled a crumpled paper out of his jeans pocket. He tugged on the paper to straighten it then began to read. “Bake sale, bottle drive, car wash, kids’ crafts.”

  “I think someone mentioned selling hot dogs.”

  “Yes, but none of those ideas can raise the kind of money we need. We have to think big. That’s why I thought of a community event, but I have no idea how to put such a thing together.”

  “I guess that’s what I’m best at—putting things together. But I usually don’t come up with many good ideas by myself.”

  His grin froze her thinking process. “Don’t we make a great team then?”

  Lynette jumped to her feet. “Let me get a pen and paper, and I’ll start making notes, too.”

  Once in the kitchen Lynette tried to stop her hands from shaking as she dug through the drawer. She didn’t want to be a great team with him, although she had to admit they worked well together. In the past when they’d served on the same committee, she had admired Rick’s creativity when they needed to get a job done. He came up with good and unique ideas, most of them workable if she set her mind to organizing the details and mechanics.

  Then, when the time came to ask for volunteers, especially with the more difficult tasks, Lynette was more likely to be silent and do whatever was required herself. Rick, on the other hand, was good with people. No matter what task lay ahead, very few people could say no to him. As well, whoever ended up helping did so cheerfully and graciously. His gift for the Blarney made Lynette wonder if he had a little Irish in his background. As much as she didn’t want to, she couldn’t help but like him.

  By the time she made her way back into the living room, she found Rick leaning over her coffee table and scribbling more illegible notes on the small paper.

  “I think I’ve come up with a few more ideas,” he said, still writing. “We could make it into a mini-fair. Our parking lot is certainly big enough.” He stopped with the pen still touching the paper. “Did you know that the Robindales know someone who has a hobby farm and does a side business of a traveling petting zoo? Since we’re a church, I wonder if they’d let us use their portable pen and some animals for free if we let them display their signs in a prominent place on the day of the fair.”

  For the first time since she heard of the project, a rush of excitement fluttered in her stomach. “I don’t know if we could charge money for that, but it certainly would be a drawing feature for the community.”

  Rick nodded. “We can’t have rides or anything, so I’m trying to think of stuff I usually see at the smaller country fairs, like bake sales, displays, and contests with prizes.”

  The excitement waned. “That would mean we’d have to buy prizes. I don’t know if we can afford that kind of expenditure.”

  Rick shook his head as he wrote something else. “We don’t have to. I’ll make a few phone calls tomorrow and see if I can get a few donations. I have an uncle who runs a motel in Seattle. I could probably get a grand prize of a weekend for two, along with a couple of passes for the Space Needle. Of course, we’ll have to decide what kind of contest is worthy of that kind of prize.”

  Lynette tapped her index finger to her cheek as she struggled to think. “If we’re trying to reach the community, we should emphasize kids’ and teen activities.”

  Rick nodded and stopped writing. “I agree. What do kids like to do?”

  Lynette grinned. She’d spent enough time in Sunday school to know the answer to that one. “Young children like to draw, and kids of all ages like to throw things. In fact, I know many adults who like to throw things—they just won’t admit it. I’m thinking about a paper-plane-throwing contest, with prizes. What about teens?”

  Rick’s mouth quirked up at one corner. “Teens like to eat, so my suggestion is some kind of eating contest. The only two things I can think of are hot dogs and pies, but your father is going to be selling hot dogs. We don’t want the teens to eat all our profits.”

  “Then a pie-eating contest is the best choice. One reason I love living in Washington state is because I know so many people with apple trees. Since apples are everywhere this time of year, we could probably get most of the apples for free.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Rick mumbled as he started writing again, which emphasized that Lynette had not written a single thing. She rectified that by picking up her pen and making notes also.

  As the evening continued, they discussed everything on Rick’s list, which allowed Lynette to make many tentative plans. They also drew a picture of the parking lot and building so they could get a better idea of the space required versus what they had available.

  Before she knew it, the clock read 10:30. They still didn’t have a concrete plan, but they had come up with a number of good ideas that needed to be discussed with the youth group members before they could present their proposal to the church board.

  Lynette followed Rick to the door. “So you know who you have to contact tomorrow?” she asked as she opened the door.

  He nodded. “Yes. I’m pretty sure I can get most of the calls made on my lunch break. You’re going to call around and scrounge for apples, right? I’ll call my uncle about the weekend getaway idea. We should get together again tomorrow. Same time, same place?”

  “Yes, I think we should.”

  Rick smiled. “See you tomorrow, Lynette. Oh, and don’t cook tomorrow. I’ll bring something. Since I have to work late, I’ll be coming straight here.”

  She almost said no but couldn’t justif
y why not. His coming over with dinner only meant church business, so they could discuss the matter at hand sooner, and nothing more.

  All she could do was nod.

  “Good. This has been a great evening, Lynette, in more ways than one.”

  Before she could respond, he turned and left.

  Lynette stood in the doorway, watching as he drove away. It had been a great evening. For the first time in a long time she hadn’t minded discussing and making plans for a complicated event. In fact she’d actually enjoyed it, which made her wonder if maybe she wasn’t as burnt out as she thought.

  Chapter 3

  P izza box in hand, Rick knocked on Lynette’s door and waited.

  When the door opened, Lynette’s beautiful smile nearly made him drop their supper. “Hi,” he mumbled as he tried to maintain his dignity.

  “Hi. How did everything go?”

  “As well as could be expected, I suppose. I couldn’t get hold of my uncle, and it appears our other plans may have changed a bit. I don’t think anything like this ever happens as it was planned the first time around.”

  Her smile dropped, and Rick immediately felt the loss.

  “You should probably come inside before that gets cold.” She turned around and walked into the house. He shut the door behind him and followed her into the kitchen.

  She spoke over her shoulder as she reached for a couple of plates from one of the cupboards. “If it makes you feel any better, my quest for apples turned out more bountiful than I could ever have planned. What happened to you today?”

  Rick set the pizza box on the table and sat down. “Our impromptu youth group meeting was a lesson in organized confusion. We came up with a million ideas, but nothing concrete. Everyone volunteered to do something, but no one knows what. The topper came when Sarah Rondstadt said she knows someone who has one of those dunk tanks, and she’s going to ask if we can borrow it. You know what Sarah is like once she sets her heart on something. No one can ever say no to Sarah. That means we have to find someone whom people will pay money to try to dunk and who won’t mind being dunked. Do you have any idea how hard that’s going to be?”

  Lynette grinned. “You told me yesterday you could say no to people.”

  “This is Sarah we’re dealing with. That’s different.”

  She scrunched up one side of her mouth as she opened the pizza box. “A dunk tank isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it does change the spin on the other events we can have around it.”

  He nodded and folded his hands in his lap. “We got the petting zoo, by the way. The owners told me they require four people to be inside the pen with the animals and children at all times, and the teens are all fighting for who gets first dibs to be with the goats. I also found out how they make money from these things. Since we’re a church, we have the animals for free for the day. It’s up to us if we want to charge admission, but I had to guarantee those feed bins will be inside the pens. You know, they’re kind of like gum-ball machines, but they hold the feed pellets for the animals. Want to imagine how many quarters go into those machines during a day of wall-to-wall children?”

  Lynette’s cheeks turned pink. “I’ve been known to put a few quarters in those things, too. But the main thing is the petting zoo will be a draw for the other events where the church will make money.”

  Rick could well imagine Lynette feeding animals at a children’s petting zoo. Her kind and gentle spirit was one of the many reasons he’d fallen in love with her so long ago.

  “Ryan suggested the senior teens could do a slave auction, but I turned that down. For our own church members, that’s different. But for a community event I’m not going to be sending minors out to the homes of strangers to do work I know nothing about. It doesn’t matter how big some of them are; they’re still our children.”

  “Good idea.”

  “Brad suggested a neighborhood dog show, but we can’t have people bringing their dogs if we’re having the petting zoo. We can’t risk the goats’ getting frightened and stampeding or doing whatever goats do when they get scared.”

  “Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. I’d better cross the dog show off my list.”

  They paused for a word of prayer over their supper then continued to discuss more ideas.

  Rick couldn’t believe how fast the night progressed, but then he should have expected that every minute he spent with Lynette would pass too quickly.

  Before he knew it, he was standing at the door, saying good-bye. “I guess I’ll see you at the church tomorrow night. What time? Seven?”

  Lynette nodded. “Yes. I’ll see you there.”

  Rick’s heart pounded as he stood on the porch. Lynette stood in the doorway, close enough that he could lean over and kiss her, if this had been a date.

  Rick blinked and stepped back. This wasn’t a date. This was church business, and church business only. While they’d had a pleasant enough evening together, every time he tried to turn the conversation to more personal topics, Lynette had promptly steered the conversation right back to the fund-raiser.

  Spending time with her, even in the context of business only, had only intensified what he’d felt all along. Not only did he love her, but more than ever he knew God had put them together.

  Now he had to convince Lynette of what God had laid on his heart. Even though she seemed intent on the fund-raiser, he had to move beyond the business at hand and talk about the two of them together—forever, he hoped. Knowing Lynette as he did, Rick also knew he had exactly until the day of the fund-raiser to succeed or fail, because after that she would pull away from him, just as she’d done for years.

  Rick cleared his throat. “I guess we’ll get together again Thursday night so we can go over what the board says. If they agree with the date we’ve set, that means we have two and a half weeks to get this whole thing happening.”

  “That’s not a lot of time. Only two days ago it sounded like such a simple thing. It seems to get bigger and bigger as we go on with it.”

  Rick swallowed and willed his hands to stop shaking. Slowly he reached forward and grasped Lynette’s hands, holding them gently within his as he spoke. “I know. There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about also.”

  Within his grasp her hands became rigid. A split second after he spoke, Lynette yanked her hands out of his and backed away. Rick mentally kicked himself for trying to move too fast.

  She looked up at him, her eyes big and wide. “Actually, while we’re talking about getting together, I think it would be a good idea to meet at the church instead of at my house. That way we’ll be right there where it’s happening, and we can organize it better. Don’t you think so?”

  No, he didn’t think so, but it didn’t appear he had a choice. “I suppose.”

  She smiled, but her smile never reached her eyes. Once again he kicked himself for trying to move too fast.

  “When do you think we should start bringing some of the teens into the planning?” Lynette asked.

  If it were up to him, the day before the event. “I don’t know. Whenever you think it’s best.”

  She backed up another step, her wide eyes fixed on him like a deer caught in the headlights about to be run over by a truck. “Then let’s talk to them right after the church board meeting. I’ll see you there. Good night, Rick.”

  He had barely backed up a step, and the door closed.

  Rick wasn’t at all sure what had just happened, but he did know one thing. Tonight he would be spending a lot of time deep in prayer.

  Rick waited while all the members of the church board read their copies of the proposal. He wondered if Lynette was as nervous as he was, though he didn’t know why. Every suggestion they’d made had been outlined into a workable station, and all the stations combined would make a great and varied community fun fair, even without rides.

  He’d had no concept of the magnitude of the project before he became involved. The seemingly endless wait for the board’s reaction weighed on
him like a cloud of pending doom hovering above him, emphasizing that he’d jumped in way over his head.

  Mr. and Mrs. McGrath, the head deacons, nodded at each other. Mr. McGrath laid his paper down on the table, clasped his hands to rest them on top of the paper, and turned his face toward Rick and Lynette, who were sitting beside him.

  “Can you two pull this off ?”

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lynette flinch.

  For the first time he had some doubts. For all their great plans, so far they had no viable donations, no prizes, no booths, and no adult volunteers. All they had for sure was a group of overanxious, inexperienced teenagers, an empty dunk tank, a pen of hungry goats, a few bushels of apples, and a list of great ideas. He supposed that if the whole thing fell through, they could still make some money by charging money for kids to feed the apples to the goats. He also feared that the person who’d end up getting dunked was going to be him.

  Rick chose not to follow that defeatist line of thought. He turned to Lynette. “We can do this. Can’t we?”

  His stomach flipped over when she turned slowly, making direct eye contact with every person in the room except him, stopping at her father.

  “Yes, we can do this,” she said.

  Her father crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you have any idea what it will take to get all this together in two and a half weeks? We’ll have to advertise beyond our own small community, to match the scope of the fair. Twenty-five thousand people live in this city, and it takes money to reach them. Like the roof, that kind of money isn’t in our budget either. But if you say you can do it, we’ll okay the additional expense.”

  Rick’s stomach tightened. Attempting to raise money was one thing, but he hadn’t anticipated having to spend money to make money.

  “I knew that, Dad.”

  “Okay then. Everyone, I think we can approve this.”

  Rick forced himself to smile. Of course Lynette would have already figured all the expenses into the big picture. If Lynette thought they could do it, then they could do it. He hoped and prayed he was up to the task.